Sarah Bern was a young member of England’s World Cup squad but such has been her rise she is already considered one of the senior players of Simon Middleton’s squad.
Bern is 20 but with many of the squad who finished second in August’s World Cup focusing on sevens, and Middleton taking the opportunity to blood a number of younger players during the Six Nations, the tighthead prop is already an old hand.
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“I do get put into the old bracket a lot, which is a bit of a shock,” she says. “Just because some of the new players are a few years younger than me doesn’t mean I’m old. I’m like, hold on a minute.”
Bern is one of six survivors from the World Cup final defeat by New Zealand in the side to face Italy on Sunday, with the 18-year-old full-back, Ellie Kildunne among the promising youngsters also selected.
Bern was one of the outstanding players at the World Cup – she scored a try and was the player of the match in the semi-final victory over France – and despite the absence of Emily Scarratt, Alex Matthews and Natasha Hunt, Bern is relishing being part of England’s Six Nations title defence, having missed the autumn campaign with a foot injury.
“There’s more an excitement because we have our young players and we have the more experienced players and it’s time to unleash what we have,” Bern adds.
“It’s great because the young players bring so much creativity and some new ideas. We have our senior players who know the foundations of what we want to do but we have the young players who bring new ideas – and then I’m in the middle. We’re bringing a creativity to the Six Nations that I don’t think has been seen before.”
Bern and the rest of the squad have been preparing for their opening match in Reggio Emilia and she revealed that England have adopted novel training methods in recent weeks, including sessions against men’s teams, primarily from the army.
“I think it’s great to play against the men’s side, it brings an extra physicality,” Bern says. “It’s like when you do strength training, if you put more weight on than you’re normally going to lift you’re going to find, it’s easier when you go back. When we train against the guys we do lineouts, scrums, we play touch against them – it brings that extra level of aggression because they’re so much quicker, they pass the ball a lot further, it’s things that biologically we can’t do anything about. It makes us think and react quicker – we have to be on our toes a lot more. It’s a new aspect we haven’t had to handle before.”
Bern juggles rugby with studying for a strength and conditioning degree at University Centre Hartpury and while England’s upheaval since the World Cup has been compounded by the Rugby Football Union’s decision to stop full-time professional contracts for XVs players, she believes the inaugural Tyrrells Premier 15s league has ensured standards have not slipped.
“In our old setup you kind of knew who was going to lose and who was going to win but it’s been completely random,” adds Bern, who plays for Gloucester-Hartpury. “And that’s really exciting, no one really knows who is going to get to the playoffs and that has driven not only our England girls but everyone else. It has really levelled out the playing field in terms of access and support and it has driven women to a higher standard.”